it there. Whoever
comes for that hat has had a hand in the mystery. We think----"

But Transome Kent was no longer listening. He had seized the edge of the
billiard table.

"Look, look!" he cried eagerly. "The clue to the mystery! The positions
of the billiard balls! The white ball in the very centre of the table,
and the red just standing on the verge of the end pocket! What does it
mean, Edwards, what does it mean?"

He had grasped Edwards by the arm and was peering into his face.

"I don't know," said the Inspector. "I don't play billiards."

"Neither do I," said Kent, "but I can find out. Quick! The nearest
book-store. I must buy a book on billiards."

With a wave of the arm, Kent vanished.

The Inspector stood for a moment in thought.

"Gone!" he murmured to himself (it was his habit to murmur all really
important speeches aloud to himself). "Now, why did Throgton telephone
to me to put a watch on Kent? Ten dollars a day to shadow him! Why?"

CHAPTER IV

THAT IS NOT BILLIARD CHALK

Meantime at the _Planet_ office Masterman Throgton was putting on his
coat to go home.

"Excuse me, sir," said an employe, "there's a lot of green billiard
chalk on your sleeve."

Throgton turned and looked the man full in the eye.

"That is not billiard chalk," he said, "it is face powder."

Saying which this big, imperturbable, self-contained man stepped into
the elevator and went to the ground floor in one drop.

CHAPTER V

HAS ANYBODY HERE SEEN KELLY?

The inquest upon the body of Kivas Kelly was held upon the following
day. Far from offering any solution of what had now become an
unfathomable mystery, it only made it deeper still. The medical
testimony, though given by the most distinguished consulting expert of
the city, was entirely inconclusive. The body, the expert testified,
showed evident marks of violence. There was a distinct lesion of the
oesophagus and a decided excoriation of the fibula. The mesodenum was
gibbous. There was a certain quantity of flab in the binomium and the
proscenium was wide open.

One striking fact, however, was decided from the testimony of the
expert, namely, that the stomach of the deceased was found to contain
half a pint of arsenic. On this point the questioning of the district
attorney was close and technical. Was it unusual, he asked, to find
arsenic in the stomach? In the stomach of a club man, no. Was not half
a pint a large quantity? He would not say